Generally, where packets of cigarettes are concerned, cigarettes emerging from a cigarette maker are ordered into groups each making up the contents of one packet. The single group is enveloped first in a sheet of metal foil paper constituting an inner wrapper, in such a manner as to create a block of substantially parallelipiped geometry.
Each block is then enveloped by a diecut blank, bent along previously formed crease lines and folded thus around the block to fashion an outer wrapper appearing as a rigid packet with a hinged lid that presents the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped with a front face, a rear face and two end faces, top and bottom.
Such rigid packets are normally of the type comprising a body of cupped appearance surmounted by a lid likewise of cupped appearance, which is hinged to a top edge of the body and rotatable thus between an open position, and a position in which the cupped body is closed.
The cigarettes internally of each packet are ordered side by side in rows, typically in three rows each comprising a number of cigarettes that will vary according to the size of the selfsame cigarettes and of the packet.
Packets of the type in question betray certain drawbacks, the most noticeable of which stems from the particular shape of the packet and from the method of manufacture outlined above. In effect, the blocks of cigarettes are bound tightly by the outer wrapper along their full length, with the result that the single cigarettes are difficult to extract when the packet is opened. This drawback relates in particular to the cigarettes of the row in tight contact with the front inside surface of the packet, as these are the first to be removed by the smoker.
Another drawback liable to affect these packets is attributable to the fact that the method of assembly can also occasion a damaging axial compression of the cigarettes between the two end faces.
In the case of cartons, single packets turned out by a packer are ordered into groups of substantially parallelepiped shape, whereupon each group is taken up by a cartoner and enveloped in a diecut blank bent along previously formed crease lines in such a way as to obtain a wrapper consisting in a rigid carton, for example of the type with a hinged lid, presenting the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped with a front face, a rear face and two end faces, top and bottom.
Likewise in this instance, cartons produced by the machines currently in use are compacted in the extreme, with the blank wrapped tightly around the respective group of packets, so that the first few packets are difficult to extract when the carton is opened.
The object of the present invention is to provide a pack of rigid type for tobacco products, embodied in such a way as to overcome the drawbacks described above.